Shanghai's 'Zero-COVID' Lockdown Gets Metal Barriers: 'So Disrespectful'

Authorities in Shanghai, China, have erected metal barriers as part of the city's ongoing fight against COVID-19 outbreaks, sparking fresh backlash from residents. The green barriers recently went up around residential buildings in the city, Reuters reported on Sunday. Workers in white hazmat suits were spotted erecting the two-meter high fences, further sealing off blocks of housing and even entire neighborhood streets. Photos and videos have now gone viral on Chinese social media, stoking outrage.

"This is so disrespectful of the rights of the people inside, using metal barriers to enclose them like domestic animals," one unnamed user cited by Reuters wrote on Weibo.

The barriers come in the midst of China's strict "zero-COVID" policies aimed at slowing new outbreaks of the disease. China reported nearly 22,000 new cases Sunday, the Associated Press reported. Most were asymptomatic cases out of Shanghai, with scattered pockets of cases being reported across the country. In response, the government has imposed strict lockdowns, with some residents being stuck indoors for weeks on end.

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